


Not to Reason Why

by DestielsDestiny



Series: Adventures in Jace Sitting [1]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: 3x08, Abuse, Aftermath of Torture, Alec Lightwood Deserves Nice Things, Angst, BAMF Magnus Bane, Domestic Fluff, Domestic Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood, Edom Angst (Shadowhunter Chronicles), Episode Related, Family Feels, Fluff and Angst, Found Family, Gen, Hurt Jace Wayland, Hurt Magnus Bane, Hurt/Comfort, Jace Wayland Deserves Nice Things, Jace Wayland Feels, Jace Wayland Needs A Hug, Loft fic, M/M, Magnus Bane & Jace Wayland Friendship, POV Magnus Bane, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Protective Alec Lightwood, Protective Magnus Bane, Spoilers, episode reaction fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-10
Updated: 2018-05-10
Packaged: 2019-05-04 18:46:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14599380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DestielsDestiny/pseuds/DestielsDestiny
Summary: “Why did you save me?” Magnus blinked. “How about some juice?”





	Not to Reason Why

**Author's Note:**

> AN: A between episodes reaction fic, more than anything else.

Day 20

“Why did you save me?” Jace’s voice cracked part way through, more a croak than a sentence really. Magnus blinked at his book for a moment, the words momentarily completely incomprehensible. 

There is just enough of a quaver in the boy’s voice to completely avoid any relation to a very similar question, thrown out in this very room, what seemed a lifetime ago now. 

Well, that and the reassuring change of tense from future imperfect to past perfect. 

_Why do_ you _want to save Jace?_

Magnus didn’t have an answer then. Well, not one that stretched past the immediate, knee-jerk, “For Alec.” But the truth…well, the truth was complicated. 

Magnus flicked is eyes up, taking in Jace’s hunched shoulders, moth-eaten sweater hanging off his thin frame at an alarming angle. Jace has never been a tall person, but recent events have left him looking nothing so much as small. Small and lost and broken. Magnus clenched his left hand against the binding of his naturally rather priceless book, and set it aside with a sigh. 

Jace Sitting was not an activity he had ever expected to undertake on a regular basis. Or at all, really. Neither was dropping by Edom to see his father, all to save the son of Valentine Morgenstern. 

Mind you, he hadn’t expected to fall in love with a Shadowhunter either. 

And yes, there is that easy answer again, right on the tip of his tongue. For Alec. True and clear and always, always warranted. 

And yet…

_You need to get out of here. We need to get to Jace and Clary._

_I can tell him to go. No, don’t…it’s fine._

_I’m never going to let anyone hurt him. And on that, we’re in complete agreement.  
I promise, no one is trying to hurt you. _

_Thank you for coming. Yeah, of course._

_I could destroy the soul sword. And destroy yourself in the process._

_Magnus, wait! Tell me Jace isn’t worth it._

“Mag…?” Even the voice, hoarse with disuse, sounded small. _He begged us!_

Magnus shook his head, turning towards Jace with an attempt at a flourish and an admittedly desperate attempt at a distraction. “How bout some juice? I have blueberry pomegranate!” Catarina put far more thought into Jace Sitting than Magnus would have expected. 

The thought, coupled with Jace’s drooped shoulders and lowered head, the closest he got these days to open displeasure, let alone dissent, gave Magnus an idea. “Madzie helped pick it out.” He had been at this long enough to not be above stooping to emotional blackmail to get fluids into his boyfriend’s brother. 

Jace sneaked a glance from behind his drawn up knees. Magnus decided to sweeten the pot slightly. “You can help me feed the cats later.” Jace actually raised his head a fraction at that. “Ok.” The single word squeaked coming out, but Magnus felt a triumphant grin spread across his face. 

Minor victories and all that. Plus, serious questions officially avoided. Mission accomplished. 

He hovered the juice back into the room on a stream of bright blue magic, deliberately snapping his fingers and slowing his steps to give Jace time to adjust to his approach. 

Counseling books had been an enlightening, if somewhat redundant part of their “How to Keep Jace Alive and Some Form of Sane” checklist. And yes, that was an actual thing. Laminated and indexed, thanks to Simon’s “mad computer skills.” Magnus sometimes despaired at what his life had become. 

Jace’s rattled breathing stopped him inches from the couch, the rise and fall of the blankets a reassuringly steady presence.  
Magnus stood stock still for a moment. 

There was a time when he wouldn’t have helped a shadowhunter for any price. 

There was a time when he’d forgotten what it felt like to want to help anyone, without exacting a price. 

And yet, when they lost Jace to Lilith, none of that had even entered his mind. Not even when the fires of his father’s kingdom were literally licking apart his very skin. 

He had gone to Edom for this boy. And it wasn’t because of guilt. It wasn’t because of payment, or duty. It wasn’t even for Alexander, not completely. 

Or for Jace, for that matter. 

_Tell me Jace isn’t worth it._

Setting the juice aside with a quick cooling enchantment, Magnus padded carefully over to the couch, drawing an extra comforter up to Jace’s chin, his ringed fingers brushing strands of blonde hair from the boy’s forehead. 

Elsewhere in the loft, the sound of a door being hauled back with careful precision brought a smile to Magnus’ face, tension seeping out of his shoulders as it always did these days. Alec was home. 

Jace dropped a kiss onto Jace’s reassuringly cool forehead, twitching his fingers together for a moment to activate the usual monitoring spell, before turning retreating from the room. 

Alec’s arms snaked around his waste from behind, a laugh startling out of Magnus. “Hello, my dear, how was your day?” Alexander’s forehead was buried in Magnus’ shoulder, his words muffled into his collarbone. 

Magnus breathed in his boyfriend’s scent, closing his eyes and holding onto the sensation for a moment longer. 

“Why do you want to save Jace?” The easy answer would have been, “I don’t.” 

Or, _for Alec._ Or, _because he’s a friend._ Or even, _because he’s a Herondale._

But none of those were the reason. Truth was, there wasn’t a reason. 

Because he hadn’t even thought about it. Not even for a moment. 

And it wasn’t until he was standing before his father, arguing for the life of his boyfriend’s brother, that it had really, truly, hit Magnus. 

He hadn’t hesitated. Hadn’t needed a reason. Because this, this was his family. 

And that moment when he didn’t even hesitate? That moment when he didn’t have an answer? 

_Why did you save me?_

Well, that was the moment he realized he had a family at all. 

00

Magnus leaned back against Alec, his boyfriend’s breath dusting against his collarbone. 

Across the room, Jace took a hesitant sip of blueberry-cranberry-apple munch. Madzie got to name the juices as well as help make them. 

Alexander sighed contentedly against Magnus. “I missed you today.” Magnus quirked a brow at the shadowhunter. 

Their worlds were in pieces, Lilith barely ash in her unsung grave, his father a looming threat, Jace a permanent residence of the loft’s couch because he refused to be out of reach of Magnus’ magic long enough to make it to the spare room, in case “I hurt anyone Alec. I can’t hurt anyone. Please.” The else and again hanging over all their heads like an anvil. 

His boyfriend had moved in by default, because at least then one of them got a half-way nightmare free sleep on occasion. 

And Magnus now knew how to make three hundred different kinds of juice that both replenished vitamins and doubled as fairly serviceable liquid meals. 

And yet here they were…doing domestic, as if talking about their days was the most natural thing in the world. 

_For more than a century, I’ve cut myself off from feeling anything…for anyone._

“Alec…Magnus?” Two heads snapped up, “Everything alright Jace?” Speaking in tandem was becoming an ever more common occurrence between them these days. Magnus flicked out a hand to steady Jace’s glass with a ribbon of magic, while Alec crab-walked them over towards the couch, all the while maintaining his limpet hold on his boyfriend. 

Alec hadn’t only moved in to stay close to Jace. 

“C-can we…have chicken soup for dinner?” The words crashed together, tumbling over each other in their anxiousness, but for just a moment, Jace’s eyes seemed to hold just a flicker of something that wasn’t despair or pain or anguish or even apathy. 

And maybe opening himself up to attachment again was painful. Maybe it came with annoying shadowhunters and panicked vampires and fights with greater demons and trips to Edom. 

But it also came with kisses on a lazy morning, horrible culinary experiments and making friends with Maryse Lightwood of all people. 

And sometimes, it even came with eating chicken soup in the center of his loft, surrounded by his family. 

Day 2

The fires of Edom were not supposed to be able to burn flesh that had demonic blood coursing through the veins within it. A fact that was utterly unhelpful in Magnus’ current predicament, a thrashing shadowhunter pulling and twisting at every singed nerve ending in his efforts to reach the knife Alec and just kicked out of his parabatai’s grip. 

Blood pulsed from Jace’s neck, and Magnus cursed soundly. “Oh for the Angel’s sake-”

Things like this never used to happen before he started associating with shadowhunters again. 

Jace thrashed his head to the side, a scream leaving his mouth. “Just let me go! Let me end it! Please! Before I hurt anyone else! Please!” Magnus clenched his jaw tightly, and flared his magic brighter and brighter. 

It took nearly as long to put Jace to sleep as it did to seal the worst of his wounds, the boy a collapsed ball of exhaustion and scalding hot tears in Magnus’ arms, the living room carpet pressing harshly into every single one of his supposedly impossible burns. 

But Alexander was a warm and soothing presence at his back, arms snaking around them both, Isabelle watching them with tear filled eyes from the doorway. 

And for a moment, Magnus let himself close his eyes, and just breath. 

 

Day 92

Jace looks ridiculously young. Feet bare and toes curling on cold concrete, one of Alexander’s t-shirts hanging off his emaciated frame like a tent. Blonde hair nearly down to his shoulders, dripping rainwater in every which direction. 

A wet ball of off-grey fur is cradled carefully against his heart, hands trembling but sure on the mewling head. 

Puppy dog bright eyes gaze imploringly at Magnus’ stern expression. 

“I found her in the alley, there was nobody around, and its still pouring out…we can keep her though, right?” It was almost not a question. Almost. Mismatched eyes held his gaze, flinching yes, but steady as well. 

Magnus made sure is sigh was deep and gusting. “If you insist. I suppose we might be able to rustle up something…” 

And somehow, Jace’s grin, when it came, rivaled the fires of Edom themselves.


End file.
